ExxonMobil commits to $20B+ annual capex through 2027
The leaders of ExxonMobil on Dec. 1 said they plan to stick to their annual capital spending plans of $20-25 billion through 2027, extending by 2 years their previous forecasts.
The global energy giant will prioritize investments in Guyana, Brazil, and the Permian basin in coming years—60% of capex dollars will go to those regions as well as liquefied natural gas and chemicals projects—and expects that more than 90% of its upstream projects through 2027 will generate double-digit returns at oil-equivalent prices of $35/bbl. Specifically, the company expects to produce roughly 700,000 b/d in the Permian by 2025—that number averaged 367,000 in 2020—as well as more than 750,000 b/d by 2026 in Guyana, where it made several discoveries last year, and 220,000 b/d by 2024 from the first phase of its Bacalhau development in Brazil.
The investment plans will contribute to an expected doubling of adjusted earnings and cash flows by 2027 versus 2019, when those numbers were $12.3 billion and $25.8 billion, respectively.
“The plan supports our continuing focus to reduce our emissions, and advance affordable, lower-emission product alternatives for our customers, while continuing to provide the essential energy people need,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in a statement. “We built the plan from the ground up, with strong business-line ownership and a commitment to deliver results. It is flexible and it can be adjusted to adverse market conditions or changes in the pace of the energy transition.”
The ExxonMobil team plans to invest $15 billion between now and 2027 in lower-emission projects, which will include work to further cut emissions as well as projects to grow its low-carbon businesses such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and biofuels. Woods last month said the company is interested in or already working on carbon capture and storage projects in the Houston area as well as in Wyoming, various countries in Southeast Asia, Scotland, France, Belgium, and The Netherlands.
Woods and his team also said Dec. 1 that ExxonMobil is on track to meet its 2025 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-reduction targets by the end of this year. Going forward, the company is targeting a roughly 20% drop in overall GHG emissions by 2030, a figure that includes target cuts of 40-50% in upstream intensity, 70-80% in methane intensity, and 60-70% in flaring intensity.
Shares of ExxonMobil (Ticker: XOM) were up about 2% in midday trading Dec. 1. They are essentially flat over the past 6 months.
Geert De Lombaerde | Senior Editor
A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of business journalism experience and writes about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal and T&D World. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati and later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector as well as many of its publicly traded companies.